Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed concern Wednesday that the $45 billion merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable would raise the prices consumers pay for cable television and high-speed Internet service while leaving them with fewer choices for video programming.

But only one — Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. — said during the three-hour hearing that he wanted the merger blocked, giving the hearing more the air of a strict lecture rather than an investigation.

Although David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast, played down the likelihood of higher prices for consumers, he also resisted an offer to amend his earlier statement that the company cannot promise that cable and broadband prices will go down, or even increase less rapidly, after the merger.

“I’m very careful what I commit to and what I promise,” Cohen told the committee. “There is nothing in this transaction that will cause anyone’s cable bills to go up.”

Cohen did acknowledge that Comcast has a reputation for leaving its customers dissatisfied.

“It bothers us that we have so much trouble delivering a high quality of service to customers on a regular basis,” he said.

But it is trying to improve, he added, by hiring more service employees and improving training.

Those efforts “are beginning to bear fruit,” he said. “We’re deeply disappointed with where we are. But that will spur us to be even better. Sometimes we need a kick in the butt to focus.”

Comcast has been arguing that the proposed takeover would benefit consumers by generating greater investment and more competition among cable-television and broadband companies.

The deal has generally been supported by conservative lawmakers and opposed by Democrats, who fear that it will result in higher bills for consumers for cable and high-speed Internet service.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who is chairman of the committee, said in an opening statement that the impact of the merger on consumers was probably the most important consideration in determining whether the deal should go ahead.

“Consumers do not want to hear complex legal jargon or obscure regulatory terms,” Leahy said. “They want to know why their cable bills are going up. They want to know why they do not have more choice of providers. Consumers are trying to find out whether and how this merger is good for them. I want to find out the same things.”

“When we invest, our competitors will be spurred to invest, too, benefiting even more Americans,” Cohen said. “In fact, many of them have already announced their plans to expand investment in response to our proposed transaction.”

Franken had signaled his apprehension Tuesday, when he said in a statement: “I’m very concerned that consumers are going to get stuck with higher cable and Internet prices, fewer choices and even worse service.”

“Comcast has an army of lobbyists pushing this deal, but during this hearing we need to make sure that consumers’ voices are being heard, too,” he said. “I’m looking forward to further exploring the concerns I’ve raised in several letters to the regulators.”

Comcast is not relying on legal filings alone to try to win what is expected to be a bruising battle with the deal’s opponents.

The company has been busy briefing lawmakers and their staffs, particularly from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Comcast also recently added to its lobbyists two former legislative aides who advised the Judiciary Committee on antitrust matters.

Opponents, too, have been gearing up for a fight. A leading critic of the deal, Public Knowledge, a nonprofit group funded in part by donations from Google, DirecTV, Dish Network and other Comcast rivals, has hired SKDKnickerbocker, a prominent public relations firm led by Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director, and Hilary B. Rosen, a Democratic strategist and former lobbyist.

The maneuvers by both sides portend months of wrangling over the proposed merger.

Regulators are likely to focus as much on how the merger will affect the market for high-speed Internet, also known as broadband, as how it will affect cable TV service.

Comcast said that its offerings overlapped with those of Time Warner Cable in only a small percentage of markets, affecting only about 2,800 of the combined companies’ 30 million customers. Thus, almost no customers will have fewer choices for a video or broadband provider.

But the merger would create a behemoth, controlling 30 percent of the nation’s cable subscribers and more than 40 percent of the market for high-speed Internet service.

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